Love it or Leave it: The best and worst products
for blemish prone skin
In the fight against acne, clear winners and losers emerge
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Women from thirteen to thirty -- and beyond -- battle the
blemish. But no matter your age, the basics of clear
skin include banishing bacteria, managing oil production and
exfoliating to promote the shedding of dead skin cells so
that new skin cells will replace them.
You’ve got pimples, we’ve got answers.
We’ve tested and tried dozens of the top blemish blasting
products on the market and rounded up a list of which ones
work and which just made our skin look worse. Yikes!
That means you can skip the six to eight week detour traditionally
needed to determine whether or not a product is effective,
and get on the road to perfect skin today.
 Love
it! Clean & Clear Advantage Blackhead Eraser
One of our favorite acne fightin’ products can be found
right in the aisles of your local drugstore. It’s
Clean & Clear’s Blackhead Eraser and, at less than
$20, this battery operated blackhead blaster actually works.
The product is easy to use: simply stick one of the included
cleansing pads to the velcro style surface of the hand held
device, add some water to the pad and turn the power dial
to the “on” position.
The active ingredient on the pads is 1% Salicyclic Acid; mild
enough to be tolerable to most skin types. Plus, the vibrating
motion helps exfoliate dead skin as well as driving the Salicyclic
Acid into the pores where it’s most effective.
Get the Clean & Clear Advantage Blackhead Eraser with
20 pads at Target
for $17.99.
Leave it: Skin by Dr. Gram
We love that the collection is paraben free and sulfate free,
but at the steep price of $52, we wanted to see serious results.
Unfortunately, all we saw was leaking cleanser as the upside
down packaging means valuable product (about $10 an ounce)
flows freely.
Love it! Dermadoctor’s Ain't Misbehavin' Collection
 No
matter your concern, Dermadoctor’s Ain’t Misbehavin’
line boasts a customized solution for problem skin of all
types. The emergency acne spot treatment ($36 at dermadoctor.com)
promises to be better than a cortisone shot at eradicating
zits and the intensive blackhead treatment ($42) gets rid
of blackheads, those pesky black skin plugs caused by excess
oil. Rounding out the collection is the aha/bha acne cleanser
($25) and sulfur acne mask ($45); both succeed at curbing
bacteria growth.
Leave it: We were immediately drawn to the
generous 6 oz. container of pHisoderm Anti-Blemish Facial
Wash for less than $6 while browsing the blemish bustin’
offerings at our fave drugstore. Sure, the price is right,
but the deal turned sour when we didn’t see any compelling
results after using the product for weeks. Cheap? Yes. Results
driven? Definitely not. Our advice: save up for something
that actually works.
Love ‘em: Battery Operated Zit Zappers
 Thermaclear
is an acne clearing device that uses a two-second Thermal
Pulse Technology™ similar to the laser technology used
by dermatologists. News flash ladies, this product actually
works, meaning we no longer worry about that occasional hormonal
flare up. According to the company, the device neutralizes
acne-causing bacteria under the surface of the skin, so breakouts
disappear up to four times faster than usual. That old
adage “you get what you pay for” holds true here;
Thermaclear sells for about $149 at Sephora.com.
Another favorite is Zeno Mini, a hand help device that calls
upon ClearPoint technology to deliver bacteria-killing heat
to the blemish site. The device operates on the two
AAA batteries included in the package and, interestingly enough,
doesn’t need to be cleaned. Get it for $129 at myzeno.com.
More
Best and Worst Acne Fightin' Products
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